Thursday, July 31, 2008

I am posting twice today. My earlier post was for yesterday’s food. Now it’s time for today's.

I offered Peter the choice between salmon, rib eye steak and chicken breast as our protein this evening. He opted for either salmon or chicken, so I got two boneless skinless breast pieces out of the freezer.

Last week I discussed our Picnic Chicken recipe. I’m going to use some elements of that as I make chicken paillards. They will be accompanied by the last of the potato salad from last Sunday’s picnic in Central City.

Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Add the garlic and pepper corns and the chicken in a one gallon freezer bag. Refrigerate for 3 – 4 hours. One hour before cooking, remove the chicken from the brine and dry with paper towels. Do not rinse the chicken.

Remove the tenders and set aside. Slice the breast pieces to open them up like a book. Put them between pieces of plastic wrap and pound them to about 1/3” thickness, making sure they are equal thickness all over. The tenders do not need to be flattened.

In a saucepan, melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the capers, rice wine and lemon juice. Keep warm.

Sprinkle with pinches of paprika and pepper. Heat a stovetop grill or ridged pan over medium high heat. When hot, spray with Pam and start cooking the chicken. My favorite way of knowing when the grill is ready is to flick a few drops of water onto it. If it vaporizes immediately the grill is ready. Allow no more than 3 minutes for the first side. Flip the pieces over and turn off the burner. Cover the chicken loosely with a piece of foil. Let them sit there for exactly 2 minutes and then remove them to a warm plate.

The blogoshpere hasn’t heard from me for a few days. We made so much food last weekend for the picnic that we’ve been grazing on leftovers. Frankly, I’m ready to move on.

I got a newsletter from the Food Network the other day. In it was a black rice and prawn salad recipe. The rice is to be made black by the use of squid ink. I don’t know where to buy that. So I decided to use the basic premise of the recipe and make a concoction of my own.

Cook rice according to package directions. Drain and let cool. Season shrimp with paprika, salt and pepper, and sauté in oil and butter. Set aside. In the same pan, sauté garlic, scallions and red bell pepper until al dente. Set aside to cool. Toss in chili pepper and olives. In a large bowl, combine, shrimp, rice, vegetables, bamboo shoots and olives. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Garnish with more scallions, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and serve.

One of our summer staples, once Colorado-grown tomatoes become available is Insalata caprese, or tomato, basil, mozzarella salad. We prefer using smoked mozzarella for the extra flavor. It’s very simple: sliced tomatoes, basil leaves and slices of mozzarella drizzled with some olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. It seems like the perfect accompaniment to tonight’s shrimp and wild rice salad.

I’ve mentioned the “Manager’s Specials” and “Clearance Sale” areas at King Soopers and Safeway respectively. I had my eye on some boneless leg of lamb at Safeway and had made a mental note to check the bin starting on Saturday. The sell-by date was Monday and sometimes they put things on sale 2 days ahead.

Well, they didn’t put the lamb on sale on Saturday and I didn’t check for it on Sunday. On our way home from the gym Monday morning I scooted inside the store once again. Alas, the lamb appeared to be gone. However, on Tuesday, while doing some general shopping I took another look. There were 3 packages of lamb, not in the sale area, but right where they had been all along. I missed it on Monday because the packages had been turned upside down and my cursory glance didn’t recognize them for what they were.

I summoned the meat man and pointed out to him that the lamb was now one day past its sell-by date. He reduced the price by 50% and I came home a happy camper.

My idea had been to make “corned” lamb, but that very day I had just put a brisket in the corning brine where it will languish for a week. I tossed the lamb in the freezer. It’s very comforting to know it’s there.

Friday, July 25, 2008

I have become a great fan of the "Manager's Specials" bin at Safeway and King Soopers. On the "best if purchased by..." date or sometimes 1 or even 2 days before, all kinds of meats are reduced by 30%. If it is the actual last day, sometimes the price is reduced by half and then a "save 30%" label goes on. I've gotten some remarkable deals.

Yesterday I found two bone-in pork chops for which I paid about $2. Their sale date wasn't until tomorrow so I wasn't sqeamish about buying them. I am squeamish about chicken and those marinated meat things. Beef or lamb I consider just to be "aged" by the expiration date.

I've got my eye on some boneless leg of lamb whose date is this coming Monday. I'll hit the specials bin starting on Saturday in the hope of getting lucky. I've got the bee in my brain to make corned lamb. Yes, you read that correctly. I have googled "corned lamb" and find no recipes for it. However, in Australia and New Zealand there are varities of corned lamb which is canned. I have to tell about it if I do make it. I also found recipes for corning game meats such as elk, moose, etc. I can't think of a reason why, if you can make corned beef, what's to stop you from making corned lamb.

Anyhow, when I set out to blog today, I had only one simple idea in mind: my contribution to today's dinner. It involves those pork chops. Peter has been planning for a couple of days to make some Asian peanut noodles and inquired if I had anything in mind to accompany them. Indeed I did.We had a rather pedestrian breakfast in a Mexican place last Friday. I ordered pork chops and eggs. What I was served was a 1/4" thick chop, bone-in. It had a red sauce on it and was pretty good. I've seen TV chefs pound pork chops very thin and sear them and that's what I have in mind to do.

Over lunch today Peter suggested doing something that would give the chops at least a hint of something to complement his eastern dish.A little research gave me a couple of ideas. The one I like the best is also the simplest: brine the chops, cut the meat off the bones, pound it flat (like a paillard), brush on some hoisin sauce about 15 minutes ahead, and sear them on the grill. What could be simpler than that.Even though I'm writing in the present tense (as in today), I'll post this tomorrow after we've had the opportunity to see how this turns out.

Ok, now it's Friday and I can report on the pork chops. They tasted really good. However, I cooked them a bit too long. They tightened up on me. I'll do this again soon and have the courage to get the chops off the grill within no more than one minute on the second side. After all, they will do some carry-over cooking.

If you try this recipe, do a better job than I did with the actually grilling.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What a magnificent quiche! I started with a couple of different recipes and then made the one below, which I consider my own.

There are a couple of things about this that might inhibit your making it exactly the way I did. First, I used a 10" Chanterelle glass pie plate. If what you have is 9", fear not. I'll adjust the amounts for you. Second, I just happened to have some asparagus on hand. You don't need to add it and, if you do, your egg mixture might come close to overflowing. I'd suggest roasting or poaching some asparagus separately or making a green salad.

Lay a piece of aluminum foil out and invert you pie plate on it. Cut a circle of foil about 1" larger than the plate. Fold that in half and cut around the outside, about 1" in from the edge. You will use part of this to shield the edge of the dough while baking and disk shape for your pie weights.

Flour your countertop and lay out 1 piece of dough. Cut a 1 1/2" circle around the outside. Lay out the other piece of dough (remember you don't need this for a 9" plate). Fit the circle you cut around the outside of the complete piece and roll it together to extend the diameter of the dough. You'll need to patch with more of the first dough piece to finish it.

Place the dough in the pie plate and trim as necessary. Place the disk of foil on the bottom and put in pie weights, either beans or regular marble-shaped pie weights.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the pie weights and the foil. I did this by simply inverting the plate and dumping the weights out into a bowl.

Apply an egg wash with the egg you whisked. Return the crust to the oven for 5-6 more minutes. When it comes out it might have puffed up in the center. Prick it with a fork and then add egg wash to seal the holes. Allow the crust to cool nearly to room temperature.

Meanwhile make your filling. Blanch the asparagus and then plunge it into cold water. In a large bowl whisk together the remaining egg wash and the rest of the eggs. Whisk in the cream. Stir in the cheese, red pepper, scalliions, 1/2 tsp salt and a good grind of fresh black pepper.

When the crust is cool, put the ham in the bottom and then pour the filling into it. Place the ring of foil over the edges of the crust and crimp lightly. Bake for 25-35 minutes, removing the quiche from the oven when the top is set and lightly browned. Allow to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

One last note. I was warned in one of the recipes I consulted to have all ingredients at room temperature before beginning to prepare this.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Ok, I borrowed (and modified) this recipe from Food Network's Paul Deen. Many of the mousse recipes I found called for whipped cream. Hers just called for straight heavy cream and I was feeling lazy. Many of the recipes called for canned salmon, certainly an option. But a nicely poached piece of fresh salmon is so much better. I was not too lazy to poach. I was surprised to find that the pin bones you usually find in salmon filet had been removed. How conVENient!

Paula called for dried dill weed. I had fresh on hand an saw no reason not to use it. After the fact I was glad to have reduced the amount of cream by 1/3. The mixture was quite loose.

I didn't have a non-reactive mold, so I lined an aluminum bunt pan with plastic wrap.

The idea of using some scrambled egg was the result of our having 3 egg whites on hand after Peter made an oreo cheesecake this morning.

You need enough broth to cover the salmon. Bring the broth to a boil, drop in the salmon, lower the heat to a simmer. The salmon will take 10-12 minutes depending on thickness. Cut a slit in it to see when it's done. Remove from the broth, which you should discard. Allow the salmon to cool completely, then flake it and put it into your food processor.

Put the gelatine in the cold water and stir it well. Add the hot water and stir until it is thoroughly dissolved.

Put everything except the watercress into a food processor. I probably should have done this in two batches as I had a slight bit of leakage. But, no harm done. Process until thoroughly pureed.

Pour into a non-reactive mold, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Serve on toast with a bit of scrambled egg if you like. garnish with sprigs of watercress.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

This experiment was only partly successful. That happens some days. It does not dissuade me, however, from continuing my quest for interesting and innovative things to do in the kitchen.

I think there is the possibility of making this dish and having it turn out to be quite lovely. Probably by cooking the mushrooms by themselves and serving them with the stuffing along side.

The picture below doesn’t give you a very good idea of the size of these puppies. The ones I buy at my favorite Chinese supermarket are 6-7” long and about 2” in diameter. They are very dense in texture, much more so than portobellos. The bottom inch or two of the stem end should be cut off and discarded. It is tough. The top is the most tender portion, which leads me to wonder why the tops are trimmed when I buy them. When I say trimmed I don’t mean the tops are removed. They are shaved straight up the side, leaving you with a cylinder that looks, frankly, like a rather large, uncircumsized male organ.

The idea was simple. Slice the shrooms in half lengthwise. Excavate a deep “V” slit in each half. Stuff it. Tie it together. Saute or roast.

The stuffing I created was very good. It was a mix of scallops, shrimp, scallion, oyster sauce and sriracha. It also included chopped up mushroom from what was hollowed out of each mushroom which I sautéed and let cool before combining it with the seafood mix. I made so much of it that tonight we will have seafood “burgers”.

The problem is a simple one: king mushrooms are very dense in texture. I don’t know if there is a way to tenderize them when they are whole. Chopped up or sliced thin they are quite lovely.

Grilling a Portobello cap and then placing it under the broiler with the stuffing on it probably would be good. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The good news? I think we will have two very tasty shrimp/scallop burgers tonight.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The weekend brought a couple of very pleasant surprises. One was the homemade corned beef I may have mentioned recently. The recipe is very simple, although it does require a couple of special ingredients: pink salt and pickling spice. It is published in the book “Charcuterie” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. However, you don’t need to buy the book. I found their recipe online at:www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/homemade_corned_beef.html.

Indeed the 5-day curing period they call for was perfect. The one unusual thing I did was to use a piece of flatiron steak instead of the traditional brisket. Flatiron is inherently more tender than brisket and produced a delightfully tender bit of corned beef.

So my creativity was present, though relatively minimal.

In “Charcuterie” there is a plethora of things to try. I bought some pickling cucumbers at a farmer’s market on Friday and used the book’s recipe for dills. The previous recipe I had used, something I found on the web, calls for 3 days of curing. However, the book says 3 weeks! Eek, I don’t think I can wait that long. I will give it 1 week and then try a sliver of pickle.

Yesterday, Sunday, was where my creativity kicked in with a vengeance. I bought some yard-long beans at my favorite Chinese supermarket, a head of cabbage, a cilantro-like bundle of herbage, and a package of king mushrooms. More about the latter two items tomorrow.

A while back, on a whim, I googled “corn beef and pasta.” Low and behold I found a recipe for corned beef with spaghetti. Our weather has been pretty hot and somehow pasta just seemed to heavy. My solution? I created “spaghetti” from the long beans.

If you’ve never seen yard-long beans, they seem much like green beans … only longer. They are a pale greenish-yellow. They are not literally a yard long, more like 12” to 18”. They do not have strings. Other than that they taste a lot like green beans, but at the same time a bit different. If this recipe amuses you, feel free to use regular string beans. You will have to string them, however.

Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Add a generous amount of salt just as you would if you were cooking actual pasta. Trim the ends off the long beans and cut them in half. If you are using regular string beans don’t cut them, just string them and trim the stem ends. Blanch the beans for 10 minutes, then drain and shock them with cold water (your kitchen sink sprayer will do the trick quite well).

Slice the beans in half lengthwise. This is a little tricky. I have a small wooden cutting board with grooves around its edges. The beans lay in the groove in a perfect fit and allowed this task to be both quick and safe.

Slice the corned beef thinly against the grain. Place the beef and cabbage in a large skillet with 1 cup of beef or chicken broth. Heat this mix to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold water and stir it into the beef and cabbage. If it becomes too thick, add more broth until you get the texture you like.

Add the beans to the pan, toss it all together, heat it through, and season it with just a bit of salt and as much black pepper as you like. I like a lot. Serve in pasta bowls just as if it were spaghetti.

One addition I would have made had we had them on hand would have been a lightly poached egg to top each serving. Alas, we had no eggs.

This was a remarkably tasty dish, one that will become part of my permanent culinary repertoire. And … because it had meat and loads of vegetable matter, it was a one-dish supper.

Stand by tomorrow for my newest creation: king mushrooms stuffed with shrimp and scallops.

One last thought: I haven't solved the dilemma of a table of contents. Wait, I just had an idea. If I create a table of contents, update it each time I add a recipe, and then add it as a new post each time I blog, it will be the first page! Who knew?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Today’s accomplishment (read: what I did) was the invention of a black-eyed pea salad to accompany oven-fried chicken. The chicken recipe can be found at http://www.americastestkitchen.com/.

Enter Spice-Rubbed Picnic Chicken in the search box.

We used packages, one each, of bone-in thighs and legs. At our market the packages of thighs usually have four pieces and the legs five. For two people that’s enough for two big meals.

Important -- try this variation: We found the chicken too salty the first time we made it. Today we brined the chicken for two hours, dried it (without rinsing), and then put the spice rub on it without adding the salt it calls for. Then it sat in the fridge from about 11:30 am until 4 pm, at which time we took it out to come up in temperature until 5 pm when we put it in the oven.

If you like things saltier than we do, just go with the original recipe.

I microwaved the peas, cutting down the cooking time by about 2 minutes to keep the beans al dente.

The pepper looks just like a jalapeno but is yellow instead of green. I don’t know what it’s called. It’s a little milder than a jalapeno. Cut the top off, scoop out the pith and seeds (or leave it in if you want a little extra kick), and slice it cross-wise into thin rings.

Blister the skin of the green pepper under the broiler and then place it in a paper bag to steam for about 20 minutes. Peel the skin off after it is cool. Chop into bite-size pieces.

When the beans are cool, toss all the ingredients together. Add the dressing about 1 hour before serving.

I deliberately cut all the vegetables to a size that allows for eating the salad with a soup spoon. Do what you like.

Buttermilk dressing

I am including this recipe (and the brine recipe above) because they come from a magazine, “Cook’s Country,” an ancillary publication to “Cooks Illustrated,” which you may not receive. We did not make these two things up ourselves.

I am going to the library today to pick up a book I’ve been waiting to get my hands on. It’s titled “Charcuterie” and reportedly will tell me how to make all kinds of cured meats at home. Yummo! This is the book that contains the recipe I downloaded for making corned beef. I referred to the corned beef in my last blog. It will be ready in 3 more days. Can’t wait.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

1) I poached a pound of salmon in a court bouillon of my own making. I used homemade chicken stock, white wine, black peppercorns, and a no-salt seasoning that someone gave us recently. All it takes is to bring the stuff to a boil and let it simmer a few minutes. Then you add the salmon and let it simmer slowly. It took 5 minutes for the smaller sides of the salmon filet, and about 10 minutes for the thicker portions.

2) I began an experiment using "curing" mixes I have. I've made homemade ham and homemade "smoked" turkey legs with them. I put the quotes around smoked because the way I got the legs to have a smoky flavor was to add a bit of liquid smoke when they went into the oven after 4 days of soaking in the cure.

Anyhow, I got the idea to make corned beef out of something other than brisket: flatiron steak. I gather that meat processors have only in recent years found a way to mechanically separate the flatiron steak from the part of the cow that is where "chuck" comes from. Of the four common cuts (flank, hangar, flatiron and brisket), the flatiron is the most tender. So...I followed a recipe I found on-line and have the steak curing for the next 5 days. I see no reason why it shouldn't turn out quite well. I'll let you know.

Peter made a salmon and new potato salad which will be lunch today. Tonight we will have a very special thing I recently learned how to make: gravlax (cured salmon). I promised only to share the innovative things I do. My gravlax is made from a recipe in "Joy of Cooking," in case you're interested in trying it. It is extremely easy and extremely worthwhile if you are someone who like lox as much as I do.

Monday, July 7, 2008

This is Tuesday. I’ve been adrift lately, and even though I have an idea for an interesting dish, we’ve got too many leftovers in the fridge. Tomorrow is our foodie group’s monthly lunch which means no fancy dishes for supper. Maybe Thursday I can get back in gear, which means nothing to post ‘til Friday. You know what? I’m going to go into my blog archive. There are lots and lots of recipes that no one ever saw (I didn’t have any regular followers in those days). I’m gonna go get one right now and send it your way.

The photo is copped from another posting. Back when I first wrote the recipe below I didn’t own a camera. No matter that this picture is of shrimp and grits, which, given that I don’t expect many of you have fregola in your pantry, grits or polenta is a more than suitable substitute.

I learned something new. “Shrimp scampi” is essentially a redundancy. In Italian, scampi means “Norwegian lobster.” In the U.S., the word scampi refers more to a style of cooking than to anything else. The basic scampi preparation contains shrimp, garlic, white wine and olive oil.Using only ingredients I found in my fridge and pantry, I came up with a delicious and satisfying dish. The recipe is entirely my own. Fregola is Italian-style couscous. I just happen to have had some on hand. The Middle Eastern couscous will give you the same result.

Bring the broth to a boil and stir in the fregola or couscous. Cook according to package directions. When tender and al dente to your taste, strain out the broth, reserving ¾ cup of the liquid. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Drain well and drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and toss to coat. Set aside. In a non-stick sauté pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. When shimmering, add the shrimp. Season the shrimp with a little salt and black pepper. Cook until the first side has turned opaque half way up. Turn the shrimp and cook just until the second side turns opaque in the thickest part. Immediately remove the shrimp to a room-temperature plate and set aside. When cool, refrigerate them.Add the onion to the pan and cook for a few minutes until softened but not colored. Add anchovy paste and garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the reserved broth and white wine and bring to a boil. Reduce by half, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.When the sauce is at room temperature, put it a large bowl and add the fregola or couscous, vinegar, scallion, tomatoes, bell pepper, pepper flakes, parsley, salt and pepper, and lemon juice.Toss well and refrigerate for an hour or so if you have the time. About 30 minutes before meal time, remove the bowl from the refrigerator and allow the scampi to come to room temperature.To serve, divide the scampi into 2 portions on plates or wide soup/pasta bowls. Top each serving with half of the shrimp and enjoy.

Friday, July 4, 2008

I finished writing a book on March 25, 2008, in which I reported every item I ate for one year, with multitudes of recipes, musings on food and making food choices, and endless suggestions for adapting recipes to your own taste, even instructions as to how to simply dream up your own plan for a lunch or dinner dish. The project transformed my cooking and bolstered my kitchen confidence by leaps and bounds.

I've had a rest from my year-long obsession, but I haven't stopped writing down ideas that come to me. What I plan to do in this space is resume cataloging my daily vittles, and include at least one recipe per day.

Please be aware that I will not simply borrow recipes from other sources. Every one I share here will be substantially my own and I will make it clear what my personal contributions to a dish are.

If, on a certain day, I don't do anything worth sharing, I'll spare any readers from the pointlessness of blogging just for the sake of the blog. What I would welcome as feedback is an idea to expand, alter, revise, whatever, a recipe I've essentially made up.If I can do this right, I'll make the first page a table of contents to allow easy access to any dish that a reader finds intriguing.

That's it for now. I'll begin on Monday, July 7. I will hope to provide something for the enjoyment of others.

Tuesday Tag-Along

Foodie BlogRoll

Followers

The book - it's very special

Many folks have been reading this and seeing how much of a story it is as opposed to just a compendium of recipes. To order go to http://www.createspace.com/3695950 or to Amazon, where you search for my name, not the title.

An honor from the Denver Post

I was surprised by this entry online from Tucker Shaw, former food editor for the Denver Post:

"Denver is lousy with home-cooking blogs, but one that isn't lousy is The Obsessive Chef, where avid (OK, obsessive) home cook Stephen Crout experiments with and offers tips on recipes from a variety of sources. One recent triumph: succulent, crisp-skinned "Broasted Chicken." Visit theobsessivechef.blogspot.com for that recipe and dozens more."